I bought a pound of RofT Yerba Mate Latte on a whim a few months ago. I find it to be a very good blend. I let it steep for a good 10 minutes and strain it forcefully with my french press. Comes out very good by itself, with a bit of a saltiness to it (only in the aftertaste).

I like te describe Mate as "poor man's green tea" Basically, if Green tea and Mate were people, Green Tea would live in a piecful part of a beautiful city, and Mate would live in a hut in the forest outside of the nice part of town.

Did I actually just type this?....yup. Oh well, I hope that helps.

Also, to type a way that makes sense....Mate tastes like Green tea you wouldn't mind drinking from a paper cup, or a big plastic mug, while i think the only way i could imagine wanting to drink Green tea would be from a really nice tea cup.

To: JOE
Yeah, if you strain it and drink it from plastic cup, than I can imagine, that you don't like it To: SOAPY, LUCIEN23
Joe wrote, that he love mate, so don't listen to his second reply and excuse him, he was definetly just drunk from to much bad coffee and doesn't know, what he's saying ;o))))
Mate is let's say like PuErh.. People either don't like it, or love it. It has very strong taste, kinda grassy, bitter taste, and I think you have to find the way to like it. It took me few years of drinking Mate with caramelised sugar, before I started enjoying pure Mate, and now eventhough I like really decent and fine taste of BaiMuDan, Tamaryokucha or BiLuoChunCha, than Mate I like really strong and bitter. But it's like with everything.. Who liked olives for the first time? Or beer? Coffee? Your taste evolves, so keep on trying, and either you will love it, or it will come back to you next year .
But eventhough I understand, that if you start with Mate, you have to prepare it in a mug with a strainer, once you like, immediatelly buy kalabasa with bombilla - it's just so much better! And you can actually drink let's say third or half, than pour hot water from thermos, leave for few minutes, and you have full kalabasa of good Mate again! You obviously have to leave the leaves inside, and it gets stronger and better every brew actually ;o).

It's just perfect tea, and by the way - it's always YOUR taste and YOUR choice, so don't mind those, who don't know how to appreciate it ;o).

I like add mate to some of black teas or rooibos, for that added boost of caffeine. The taste stays hidden in black teas well.
On its own its pretty good as well. Very similar to green tea with a slight grassy taste and more caffeine of course.

I actually think the stuff tastes and smells like cigarettes -- which as a non-smoker is pretty nasty. It also seems to have a bit of common flavor with greens... and I'm not a big fan of greens either.

I want to like it... I can drink it with sugar (barely). I guess its a very acquired taste... and I'd like to acquire it.

I just mix it into my blacks (Assam and Irish Breakfast mainly) for my morning pick-me-up, much like poster kimber45acp above does. And yeah, a good strong black can almost completely cover up the flavor of the mate.